Discovery
Oil is an important resource today throughout the world, since it has a wide variety of uses. It was often called "black gold" since it had such a significant impact on America. In the early 1900's, oil was used to power trains, automobiles, lamps, and many other machines; so it was very much sought after by people looking to make a lot of money.
Impact
One of the more immediate results of the oil boom was the rise of the automobiles. Automobiles were once only for the very rich since they were expensive to make, and required lots of oil to power, but with the increase in oil, all that was required was a way to make cars cheaply and quickly. Henry Ford made this possible with assembly lines in which people built cars with all the same pars piece by piece, making the automobile accessible to much more people. The higher accessibility of automobiles let people be more independent and allowed people to live farther away from cities since they can travel there much quicker. Some longer-lingering effects of oil were that it made the U.S. very dependent on it for many of the goods that were made using oil. Because of the massive rate at which America consumes oil, they must keep importing more from foreign lands, since they can't produce as much oil as they can use it.
Did You Know?
Oil is used in the making of the following objects:
- Food preservatives
- Perfumes
- Shampoo and toothpaste
- Some clothes
- Chewing gum
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